


Safe

by kirani



Series: Czernsgiving (Noah Week) [5]
Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Buried Alive, EVERYONE IS OKAY AT THE END, Fear of Death, Gen, Hostage Situations, Kidnapping, Non-Consensual Violence, Violence, except the villains they kinda get KO'd batman-style and aren't dead but are kinda dead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-05
Updated: 2019-12-05
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:28:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21638854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kirani/pseuds/kirani
Summary: Or: Five times Noah got kidnapped by supervillains and one time he didn’tWritten for Czernsgiving Day 5:you saved me/ i want to save you / we saved each other
Relationships: Minor or Background Relationship(s), Noah Czerny/Henry Cheng
Series: Czernsgiving (Noah Week) [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1558759
Kudos: 13
Collections: Czernsgiving 2019 A Noah Week





	Safe

**Author's Note:**

> so this got... darker than i planned. the villains kept upping the anty and it got pretty heavy. M rating is for violence and fear in kidnapping situations, please heed the tags! but i promise the whole gangsey is safe and happy at the end.

The first time it happened, it was thrilling. What a story he would have! The False Scorpion had taken him as a civilian hostage and now The Greywaren was going to rescue him! He was one of Noah’s favorite superheroes, choosing to shave his head and wear all black in his crusade against crime, a black mask hiding piercing blue eyes.

The two bantered back and forth until eventually, they both dropped into fighting stances and The Greywaren released a beam of cold energy onto The False Scorpion and the fight was over almost before it began. 

The Greywaren checked to make sure he was out and then crossed to Noah and began to untie his bonds. 

“Wow! That was amazing!”

“You alright?” The Greywaren asked, helping Noah to his feet. 

Noah nodded, rubbing at his wrists. 

“Come on, I’ll take you home. Where do you live?” 

On the way back to his apartment in the coolest car Noah had ever been in, The Greywaren explained that he thought Noah got mistaken for someone else, so sorry for the trouble. 

“No problem at all! I’ll have a really great story at work on Monday.”

“Heh, yeah.”

~

The second time it happened, it was slightly less novel and a lot more scary. 

He’d been taken captive by Darkstar, sworn archnemesis of Prophetess, a sling-wielding superhero. 

“Let the civilian go,” Prophetess demanded, sling already drawn. 

“Ha!” cried Darkstar. “Don’t play dumb with me, Prophetess. I know who he is to you. You won’t fool me with this act!”

Noah looked harder at Prophetess. She didn’t look familiar… It definitely wasn’t his mom or one of his sisters, he knew them too well. And he didn’t have a girlfriend or anything. What was he talking about?

Just like before, the fight broke out but this time it wasn’t over so fast. Darkstar was a supervillain and an archnemesis of a superhero, he wasn’t some lowly wannabe villain like The False Scorpion. He tried to move further away but the binds on his ankles and wrists kept him from getting far and the fighting got closer to him as Darkstar lost ground. 

Finally, Prophetess knocked him out and Noah breathed a sigh of relief. 

“I’m so sorry, are you alright?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Noah nodded. 

“Mistaken identity, I think. What’s your name?”

“Noah. Noah Czerny.”

“Let’s get you back where you were going, Noah.” Prophetess helped him to his feet, his bonds in shreds around him, and ushered him out of the lair. 

“That was a lot scarier than last time,” Noah admitted.

“You’ve been captive before?” she asked. 

“Yeah, a couple of weeks ago, but it was over really fast. Greywaren is awesome.”

“Huh. Don’t know him. You got a sign on your back, Noah?” Prophetess pretended to check his back and Noah laughed. 

“Just wrong place at the wrong time, I guess.”

~

The third time happened was only the next day and it was kinda poorly done, honestly. 

If he hadn’t been off guard because he’d been on the phone with his sister (relaying the previous kidnapping even!) Solar Flare probably wouldn’t have even succeeded. He fumbled the initial grab and nearly dropped Noah on his takeoff. 

“Are you shitting me? This is the second time this week!”

“Shut up, hostage. You know why you’re here!”

Noah did not, in fact, know why he was there. Was it another case of mistaken identity?

As in the previous two times, though, a hero arrived to save him. This time, it was The Seeker, a suave superhero whose costume was bright colors that probably shouldn’t match but they kind of looked good on him. If Noah hadn’t been bound and gagged (seriously? Who gagged hostages anymore, it was so gauche) and laying uncomfortably on the floor of yet another villain’s hideout, he might have appreciated it. 

“The Seeker, we meet again,” Solar Flare declared. 

“Save the theatrics, Solar Flare. You know why I’m here. Let him go.”

“Not until you give me what I want!” 

“Or what?” The Seeker demanded, hands on his hips in defiance. “You know I don’t negotiate with villains!”

“Or I pull this lever and send your precious boyfriend to his death!”

Noah looked down in terror to realize that he was laying on a barely-concealed trap door. He tried to cry out but the gag was too firm and only a whine escaped. He tried to squirm away from the seam but didn’t make it far before he realized that his wrists were secured to something behind him. 

The Seeker was watching him when he looked up in terror and the superhero nodded decisively before attacking Solar Flare, tackling him away from the lever and to the ground. The pair fought hand-to-hand for a while, moving out of range of Noah’s vision so he only had the sounds of the struggle to go off of. He really hoped The Seeker was winning. 

Finally, a figure approached from behind him and the hero’s voice announced himself. “Let’s get you off this door first, okay?”

Noah nodded and felt the rope he was secured with pull taught and then cut before The Seeker pulled him off the door and reach for his gag, loosening it gently. 

“Are you alright?” he asked softly. 

Noah nodded again, unable to find his voice. 

The Seeker undid his other bonds and helped him to his feet. 

“What’s your name?” 

“Noah.”

“Noah Czerny? From the thing yesterday with Prophetess?” The Seeker asked, studying his face.

“Yeah, I was actually on the phone with my sister about when Solar Flare kidnapped me. Shit! I gotta call my sister back!” Noah patted his pockets in a panic until he found the phone tucked into his backpack and sighed in relief. He quickly redialed Rebecca’s number and smiled when she picked up and instantly began berating him for hanging up on her. 

“Rebecca!” he interrupted. “I got kidnapped. Again.”

“What!? Are you okay?”

“I’m okay, I got saved again. It was scary though. But The Seeker is here.”

“What the hell is going on in Henrietta? I’ve never heard of someone getting kidnapped three times in a month by different villains!”

“I have no idea. I gotta go, okay? I wanna go home and nap.”

“Okay, stay safe Noah. I love you.” 

“Love you too, Becca.”

~

It took nearly a month before it happened again and Noah had been lulled into a false sense of security when he woke up suddenly trapped in a glass box in yet another villain’s lair, his hands tied together and attached to the ceiling of the box. He looked around curiously, wondering what villain had kidnapped him now. 

After a moment, Doctor Dagger came into view and started talking. Or at least Noah assumed he was talking, the box seemed to be pretty soundproof. Was this guy seriously monologuing to someone who couldn’t hear him? He tried not to laugh but it went on for a really long time and he could tell when his face cracked because Doctor Dagger got mad and started stomping around like an angry child. 

Finally, a hero burst into the chamber, Electric Bee, so named for the black and yellow stripes he wore and the electric powers he wielded. His spiky hair was the most recognizable part of him, seeming to defy gravity. The rumor was that he kept it charged with electricity to stand up like that. 

The hero and villain circled each other and bantered for a while before Electric Bee looked down with horror and then to the box where Noah was suspended, only his toes touching the floor. Noah looked down, too, and realized what Electric Bee had seen: the floor, including inside his box, was covered in a shallow puddle. Any electricity would go right through Noah. 

He jerked his knees up with a yelp to get them out of the puddle and Electric Bee took the distraction as an advantage to attack Doctor Dagger with a blaze of lightning. The fight flashed before him, metal against sparks and he kept his knees tight to his chest. 

By the time the fight was over, his abs were starting to ache and his legs were starting to shake, but he was terrified to put his feet in the water without knowing if it was still charged. 

Electric Bee broke open the door behind him and, hovering above the floor with his flying power, looped one arm under Noah’s legs, supporting them away from the water. Noah sighed out shakily as he was able to relax and Electric Bee reached up to unhook his hands. Noah looped his hands, still bound together, over Electric Bee’s neck and let him carry him from the lair. 

When they landed on dry land, Noah’s feet touched down and he immediately crumpled to the ground, tears in his eyes. 

Electric Bee knelt down and untied his wrists tenderly. “Noah, right?” 

Noah looked up at the hero. “How did you know?” 

“You’re getting kinda famous in the hero circles. No one can figure out why you keep getting targeted. You’re a regular Lois Lane.”

He couldn’t help it, he burst out laughing. “And I don’t even get a boyfriend out of it!” 

“You want one?” Electric Bee grinned beneath his mask. 

“Wouldn’t dating you be more a risk?” Noah teased back. “I don’t even know your name, Bee Boy.”

“It’s Electric Bee, not Bee Boy!” the hero laughed. “But really, we’ve all been talking and we can’t figure it out. So I guess we gotta just keep you close and make sure you don’t keep getting kidnapped.”

“If you say so. You all probably know where I live anymore so, uh, just lemme know what I need to do, I guess?”

“You got it, Noah.”

~

He met with Electric Bee the next day to talk through some ideas of escorts and alerts he could send to him, The Seeker, Prophetess, and Greywaren. They would keep him safe and Noah slept easier after that.

~

It happened again, though. It happened when he wasn’t expecting it, and it wasn’t any of the four heroes he had already met. It was none of the villains who’d been after him so far and it was nothing like any of those experiences either. It was worse. 

Much worse. 

He woke up in a small, dark, damp space and immediately began to panic.

“Help!” he cried, banging his fists on the walls around him. The echo was dull and he knew suddenly he’d been buried. “HELP!” 

He reached for his phone but found it had no signal and the alert he was supposed to send to Electric Bee wouldn’t go through. He didn’t even remember being taken! His fists were starting to ache and he let them fall back on his chest as tears flowed from his eyes. 

This was it, this weird series of events was finally culminating and no one would know what happened to him. As he laid in the dark and felt his head start to go fuzzy from lack of oxygen, he sent out a silent prayer to whoever was listening that his sisters and parents found his body soon and had closure.

But then a thud hit the wood of his enclosure and a spade broke through near his knees. Light filtered in along with the fresh air and Noah began to cry again, this time in joy. 

“Dammit, that’s his feet!” 

“Hang on Noah, we’re gonna get you out!”

More wood splintered and Noah held his hands over his eyes to protect them. Finally, enough of the box was open and Electric Bee pulled him out and crushed him to his chest. They stood there for a long moment just holding each other. When Noah looked up, Electric Bee had pushed his mask up into his hair and was crying too. He was even more gorgeous without the mask and Noah gasped. 

“I’m Henry. And I’m really glad you’re alright.”

“Wow,” Noah gaped. 

Still holding Noah around the shoulders, he turned and introduced him to the other heroes present. Greywaren, “Ronan, glad to see you safe again,” The Seeker, “You can call me Gansey,” Prophetess, “Blue, nice to meet you,” and finally another hero he’d only heard of once, The Magician, “Adam. Henry told me all about you.” 

“Hi,” Noah said shyly, tucking closer into Henry’s side. “Aren’t y’all worried I’ll give away your identities?”

Blue shrugged. “The villains around here all seem to think we know you in real life anyways, figured we should. Plus, it seems like Henry’s taken quite a shining to you so clearly you’re gonna be around for a while anyway.” She winked and Noah felt his cheeks heat. 

“You all know each other, then?” he changed the subject.

“Not really,” Gansey said. “We just kinda ended up chatting and Ronan had mentioned you to Adam here, so when Poison Dart took you he alerted us and we all came to help.”

“And now?” Noah asked. 

“We’re never letting you out of our sight again,” Henry said firmly, pulling him closer to him. 

“I can live with that,” Noah smiled.

~

All five of them had taken care that he would never be put in a situation like what those villains had done to him but his relationship with Henry was always the closest. He was the first person he texted with a funny meme, an update about his life, or just to say hello. 

He trusted them all but he was beginning to love Henry. And when Henry finally kissed him, it was like that initial hug after coming out of the box. It was safe, warm, and it made him feel alive in a way no other partner ever had. They had spent the whole night wrapped up in other, whispering secrets and endearments. 

It had been months since he’d been kidnapped and he was sure none of them would ever let it happen again. 


End file.
